Private legal practitioner and member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Gordon Edudzi Tameklo has said that a call by former President John Dramani for a job creation summit to be organized is a step in the right direction.
He said on the New Day show with host Johnnie Hughes on TV3 Tuesday August 24, that the issue of unemployment remains a threat to national security hence, there is the need for all stakeholders to come around to contribute ideas on how to minimise this challenge.
Mr Mahama had said that NDC is prepared to sit around the same table with the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) to deliberate on job creation for the teeming youth of the country.
He explained that the issue of unemployment is not a problem only for the current government but all governments that have come and the ones yet to come.
For this reason, he said, there is the need for a high level summit for the NDC and the NPP as well as other parties on job creation.
Addressing a gathering as part of his thank you tour, Mr Mahama who was the NDC’s presidential candidate in last year’s elections said the youth of this country will lose faith in the democracy of the country if that is not done immediately.
“Unemployment is a serious problem that we confront and it is not only this government that is confronting the problem, past governments have the same problem. I have been president before, our economy is not creating jobs as fast as we are churning out people from our educational institutions and so the solution does not lie in one person’s head.
“That is why I have always suggested that we are willing as a party to join the ruling party and let us have a high level summit on job creation to see how we can come out with communique on what succeeding governments will do to make sure that our young people can get jobs to do.
“And that we can grow our economy faster and make sure that our people live in decency and dignity.
“The danger we face in not doing that is that our young people continue to lose faith in our democracy because the point they make is democracy doesn’t work for us.”
Commenting on this, Edudzi said “The question of unemployment is not a static phenomenon, it is dynamic and keeps increasing. Now with the benefit of power he created several opportunities, there is and doubt about that.
“The question of creating employment and decent jobs for our people will continue to be part of our national conversation.
“That is why HE John Dramani Mahama is saying that let us take a nationalistic view of the conversation. The issue of unemployment remains a national security threat.”
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana